How hard do you press your Pencil and are you worried?

[aevan]

Here we go again - as a long time Wacom user, I was always afraid that pressing hard with the stylus would cause some damage either to the pen or to the surface I'm pressing against (Cintiq screen). Now, as I've fallen in love with the Pencil, that fear came again.

With a few people on these forums claiming the nib of the Pencil is fragile, I'm going paranoid to the point where I'm thinking of ordering a spare Pencil just for backup. I think I use the Pencil quite normally - most of my strokes are really light, but I also tend to press a bit harder to get stronger lines. In fact, that's one of the things of the Pencil I like - the pressure curve. On a Wacom, I actually felt like there was less control of the pressure and I rarely went from 0 to 100% because it was, well, hard to do (you had to press really, really hard to get to full).

I actually found myself pressing more lightly in order to apply less pressure to the nib - instead of working like I would regularly.

So - what are your thoughts/experiences? Anyone worried about this? I know, I could always get a new one if I break this one, but in my country I would have to order one from the official reseller, which would mean it could be weeks before it arrived. Am I being paranoid here?

 

[bhodinut]

Procreate has a pressure curve that can be adjusted in their software. Most don't. I think the pencil pressure response curve should be adjustable at the iOS level. Would make life a lot easier IMHO.

 

[Steve686]

I press hard enough to cause the LCD on the iPP to discolor, and I do that quite frequently.

The pencil will be in stock soon enough that if you have a problem arising from normal use of the Pencil, you'll be able to walk in/walk out with a replacement.

Instead of babying our Pencils, maybe we should use them as we normally would, and give Apple some feedback on the strength and weaknesses of the Pencil.

That is, if everyone uses theirs timidly, Apple will not have as many negative points to work on in the future improving the design and possibly strengthening the nib.

 

[DaniJoy]

probably a good idea to have two of everything. parts break or get lost. i have two cintiq's for this reason. clients dont like when you miss deadlines.

im not worried about my ipad, im not able to do much work on it. mines more of a toy for me. interesting you think cintiq pressure is not as good. i have the opposite experience. maybe im just more used to cintq.

 

[ZombiePete]

I really only use mine for taking notes/handwriting, but I drew with it for fun often enough. I put enough pressure on it to make lines darker and stuff like that, and I never feel afraid that I'm going to break it or anything. Never had any issues with it.

 

[PattyMc]

I adjust the settings in whatever app I'm using so that I don't have to press hard with the Pencil. I dont think I've ever had to put enough pressure to cause display changes/ripple.

For apps that don't support the Pencil yet...I am not using those so can't say about the pressure required. Personally I wouldn't be comfortable having to put enough pressure to write or draw that it made me worry about breaking. I use the Pencil everyday, it seems pretty solid to me, I'm sure that dropping it onto a hard surface could cause damage but everyday normal usage shouldn't be a cause for worry.

 

[MartyCan]

My Pencil came with a spare tip. Don't they all? If they ship with spares I would suspect replacement tips will also be available for purchase at some point in time.

Someone somewhere on this forum did bend or break the tip of a Pencil very early on. Must have been pressing really, reallly hard to do it though.

 

[Starfia]

On this question, Apple's relying partially on the trust they've built up with me. I know from years of using their stuff, that they design it to be used the way it's meant to be, so if they've specifically built this iPad to be used with the Pencil and vice-versa, then they had better be able to withstand each other. If they were negligent about that, then they'd have a huge problem. Based on that trust, I'm at least provisionally willing to believe that if they didn't think they could achieve that with the Pencil, they wouldn't have sold the product.

I'm more worried about the durability of the iPad than the Pencil, particularly when I've seen it pressed hard enough to distort the colour of the in-display pixels (though I've found I've reached maximum pressure as interpreted by software without ever really doing that). I'm not sure whether that's evidence of anything, but at least it's an observation I've made myself – better than nothing at all.

*However,* I have a backup measure on top of all that. My main Pencil app is Procreate (hooray for Procreate), and right in the preferences, they let you customize the pressure curve, so you can cause any fraction of actual full pressure to represent it.

 

[aevan]

You all make some fine points. Thanks! I guess I'll just continue to use the Pencil like I normally would.

 

[DaniJoy]

At work we have two cintiq, two Mac pro's and each machine has two backups. I don't trust Wacom, Apple , or Adobe at all. They all fail at some point. Especially first generation products. Even software can stop working after an update. It's weird, but that's just part of the costs of a digital workflow. Hopefully the apple pencil is reliable, but we can only speculate.

 

[PattyMc]

I don't think it's very fragile...I just accidentally dropped mine from waist height and it fell onto a ceramic tile floor!! With heart pounding I picked it up...no bends, breaks, cracks. Opened Notes, still works perfectly. YAY!!

I can remember when my Waccom stylus fell off the desk onto tile floor, it was toast and had to replace it, I was so afraid this would be the same for Pencil, maybe I just got lucky but I'm glad it's okay.